As much as I’d like to buy everything Nikkor, it’s an expensive exercise. Luckily, companies like Viltrox are doing interesting things in the world of camera lenses by providing inexpensive alternatives to Nikon’s offerings for the Z mount. The tiny Viltrox 28mm f4.5 is a lightweight, very flat, and slightly strange lens. Seeing as I’m planning to pack it for the road-trip, I thought I’d take it out for a few rushed test photos.

The lens is sharper than I thought it would be for the price. As with many lenses, the central area is the sharpest, with the corners and edges being less sharp. However, nothing is awfully mushy or unacceptable. There’s no aperture mechanism in the lens, so it’s always operating at f4.5. This can either be liberating or frustrating. I found it a nice change from my usual approach because the lack of aperture control alleviated some of the technical cognitive load. Since it’s a 28mm focal length, f4.5 provides pretty good depth of field for most purposes.

It’s not the greatest photo, but you can see the dramatic sunstar the lens created around the setting sun. Viltrox have included an octagonal mask inside the lens that produces sunstars with long rays. In practice, I found the light needs to be quite strong to produce a visible effect, so it’s not going to be apparent in every photo. Some people won’t like it, but I think it’s a nice point of difference. I also like the accompanying veiling flare across the frame. I imagine this lens is capable of producing some dreamy images in the right light.